I now begin blogging. Wait a minute. Not without a little Japanese beer. So I go, out into the Nagoya night. It's almost 1 am. The air is cool and breezy and the streets are quiet but that is not to say that they are empty, I see business men, in pairs or groups of three stumbling around, still in their suits and shoes. I also spy some rowdy looking teens in crazy outfits, lurking on stoops but even they are calm, calm for being so rowdy looking. This city is always quiet. It almost feels haunted but in a benign way. Even during the day, it's peaceful here. Often I feel like the loudest person around, when I laugh out loud in restaurants or shout at a friend across the street (well, if I had a friend across the street.) I like being loud, is that the American in me? I am giddy to be out alone in Japan in the middle of night, so far from home. Each corner feels like an adventure. I feel like myself. I always feel like myself. It is a good feeling. I stop in the Mini mart around the corner from my hotel, it's kind of like a hangout in there and people really shop, like for groceries. I cant tell you, I've spent more time shopping in convenient stores this past week then maybe in all my life. This facet is not amazing but it certainly is...well, convenient. Japan is very convenient. There are vending machines on every corner and sometimes even in between. But there are also wonderful little markets that one can only witness in the early morning hours, they must close shop by noon or so and disappear again until the next morning. It's funny, they just like, slink away and once there gone, you don't even notice that something goes there. They don't have store fronts or signs. The markets are beautiful.  Tiny and jam packed with the best looking produce. Of course plenty of the markets are full of meat and seafood, they are exotic and stinky, I like to look but generally steer clear. I can't read Japanese and I confess, I am not even trying. I don't want to bump my precious Spanish out of my head. Earlier, this morning I bought 3 clementines and the most tender, delicious box of strawberries. You should hear the way Japanese say 'strawberry,' it's pretty funny, they add 2 extra syllables. That being said, I miss hummus and almonds and most of all almond butter, no hummus, no almond butter! Let me just say, it's a good thing I'm no longer vegetarian because even the tofu here comes with pork. The salads are wonderful though and fresh and abundant with the exception of the one the other night that came with cornflakes all over it. Even I thought that was weird. Not bad actually, just odd.  They serve salad here with every meal, even breakfast. I love that!

Dinner tonight was amazing. Not so much for the food, although it was good, but for the people and the atmosphere.  My fellow trainees and I got out of work late, after 9 pm and by the time we changed clothes and met back up it must have been after 10. We were pretty beat (or as Blair from Australia puts it, knockered)  and definitely hungry. We sort of picked the first place that appeared to be open and even kind of bustling. . . .

It was a Chinese/Japanese restaurant and when we walked in I picked up an English language magazine about club scenes and reggae music. It's always a little tentative in these situations. You don't really know who speaks English and who doesn't....

The place was cute with little curtains separating each table from the next. our waiter came and he was charming, cute even. Obviously we looked like foreigners so he began speaking to us in pigeon English. He pointed at the magazine I had grabbed and asked, "Do you like this??" Do you like this kind of music??? The he said something like he was a DJ and he loved reggae. only I think he called it a selector. I think he said that he was a selector and that the music we were listening to was his set. It was good too.  I say, "I love reggae!" I do. Skip to the part where I sing my favorite reggae song (lately) to him, "No, No, No... you don't love me and I know now" and he joins in. 'Dawn Penn!' he says and we sing more together: "If you ask me, I'll get on my knees and pray boy." That song has been on my mind for weeks.  He made my night.